Paint brush holder



1959 v. s. BREWER, JR 2,908,026

' mm BRUSH HOLDER Filed April 24, 1957 United States Patent PAINT BRUSHHOLDER Vernon S. Brewer, Jr., West Chester, Pa.

Application April 24, 1957, Serial No. 654,831

1 Claim. (Cl. 15-121.2)

This invention relates to supports and more particularly to a device forholding paint brushes partially immersed in a suitable liquid orsolvent.

For many years the problem of cleaning and storing paint brushes hasbeen vexatious. If a paint brush is not thoroughly cleaned after using,it becomes valueless. Brushes are sometimes kept immersed in variousliquids which may be either water or solvent. However, if the liquidevaporates so that the brush becomes exposed to the air the paint willset-up and the brush must then be thrown away or a time consuming andexpensive operation is necessary in order to thoroughly clean thebristles.

The present invention has for its primary object the provision of arelatively simple, inexpensive device whereby paint brushes of varioussizes and shapes may be suspended in a liquid maintained at constantlevel.

A further object of the invention is to provide a paint brush holderhaving means for replenishing a reservoir of liquid in which the brushesare immersed.

A further object of the invention is to provide a liquid reservoir inwhich paint brushes are immersed, means for holding a plurality of paintbrushes in said reservoir at a pre-determined height and a liquid supplyfor making up loss in the liquid reservoir due to liquid evaporation.

Further objects will be apparent from the specification and drawings inwhich Fig. 1 is a perspective of a paint brush holder constructed inaccordance with the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a side view partly sectioned, of the structure of Fig. 1 witha paint brush secured in normal position, and

Fig. 3 is a top view of the structure of Fig. 1 without the supplycontainer.

The invention comprises essentially the provision of a liquid reservoirhaving a conical or funnel shaped top which in turn supports a sheetmetal element having arcuate slots or gaps in which one or more paintbrushes may be lodged so that the bristles extend downward along theinside of the funnel. The upper surface of the sheet metal elementcarries a collar which supports a liquid container such as aconventional glass gallon jug and holds the jug at a pre-determinedlevel so that the height of the liquid in the reservoir is maintained aslong as there is liquid in the inverted jug.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the paint brush holdercomprises a base member 1 which is soldered or secured to a conicalreservoir 2 in such a way that the inverted apex of the conicalreservoir 2 is approximately in a plane with the bottom of base 1 orslightly above the plane of the base. The apex angle of the reservoir isdesirably 90 but variations in the slope of the sides of the reservoirmay be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Theupper lip or edge of the reservoir is rolled or turned at 3 and thisedge or lip supports a second truncated conical element 4.

In order to insure that the bristles of the brushes remain immersed in aliquid such as water, kerosene or any other satisfactory liquid formaintaining the bristles soft without cleaning, I provide a collar 5soldered to the top of number 4 and of a diameter slightly greater thanthe outside diameter of a conventional gallon cider jug 6. With thereservoir 2 substantially full of liquid a. filled Patented Oct. 13,1959 ICE jug of the same liquid is inverted and positioned in collar 5.The neck of the jug rests on the upper truncated portion of element 4and the top of the inverted jug 6 in this position extends slightlybelow the lip 3 of the reservoir. A screen or sieve 7 is secured 'to thebottom or inverted apex of the reservoir to prevent the brushes fromdropping into the reservoir in the event that they should becomeaccidently dislodged and also to prevent large objects from falling intothe bottom of the reservoir. As will be apparent from Fig. 2, the brush8 is supported against the sloping side of reesrvoir 2 so that thecenter line of the brush handle is substantially parallel with the sideof the reservoir.

In order to support one or more paint brushes so that the bristles ofthe brushes depend downwardly along the inside of the reservoir as shownin Fig. 2, the element 4 is cut away to provide three crescent shapedapertures 9, 10 and 11 which are preferably of different sizes. Aperture9 may be considered the middle size crescent since it has a largermaximum gap than aperture 10 and a smaller maximum gap than aperture 11.Since the ends or tops of the crescent taper into points it is possibleto wedge a paint brush into a tip of each crescent simply by a slightcircumferential movement of the brush so that the brush will besupported or suspended with all of its bristles and part of the lowerhandle resting against the inside slope of reservoir 2. By using threedifferent size crescents it is possible to wedge very large and verysmall paint brushes by simply jamming the handle of the brush into thetip of the crescent. With certain size brushes it is entirely feasibleto wedge more than two brushes into the same crescent. Just as theold-fashioned chicken watering device maintains a constant level in thewatering trough so will my device maintain a constant level in reservoir2 as long as any liquid remains in the jug. This greatly extends thetime that a paint brush can be kept in serviceable condition withoutnecessity of a thorough cleaning.

In addition to providing a convenient storage holder for paint brushes Ihave found that the apparatus of the present invention can be used as apaint brush cleaner because suflicient circulation is maintained when asolvent such as kerosene is used to carry away dissolved pigment fromthe bristles of the brushes.

The device is inexpensive to fabricate since it may be made out of sheetmetal and provides a most satisfactory means of maintaining paintbrushes in a serviceable condition for extended periods of time withoutdanger of ruining the brushes or the necessity for frequent cleaning.

Having thus described my invention, I claim,

A paint brush holder comprising a reservoir having sloping sides, meansfor supplying a liquid to said reservoir at an atmosphericallymaintained level, a closure secured to the upper edge of said reservoir,and means for comprising at least one tapered aperture defined at leastin part by said closure for wedgingly supporting an elongated brush withits handle disposed alongside a sloped reservoir side in parallelrelationship and with its bristles immersed in said liquid and lyingagainst said side.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 84,538Davis Dec. 1, 1868 498,146 Woolley May 23, 1893 586,010 Burland July 6,1897 1,023,240 Bowie Apr. 16, 1912 1,857,407 Seyforth May 10, 19322,112,907 Gregory Apr. 5, 1938 2,789,297 Barr Apr. 23, 1957 FOREIGNPATENTS 226,067 Germany Sept. 26, 1910

